San Marino · 750th birthday of Giotto

Giotto di Bondone was an Italian painter and architect at the transition from the Middle Ages to the Early Renaissance. His exact year of birth is not documented; 1267 is traditionally assumed. He died in Florence in 1337. His contemporaries already perceived him as a renewer of painting. Dante also mentions him in the “Divine Comedy” and describes how Giotto’s fame surpassed that of his predecessor Cimabue.

Giotto’s figures differ from the more schematic representations of the Byzantine-influenced painting tradition. He gave them spatial corporeality, individual facial expressions and comprehensible gestures. He used architecture and landscape to structure the action and pictorial space. He is particularly known for the fresco cycle in the Cappella degli Scrovegni in Padua, with scenes from the lives of Mary and Christ. Other works are associated with the Bardi and Peruzzi Chapels in the Florentine church Santa Croce. Since Giotto directed a large workshop and written evidence has only partially survived, the extent of his own execution of individual works is assessed differently in research.

The Florentine Campanile is part of the cathedral complex on Piazza del Duomo. In 1334, Giotto took over the direction of work on the cathedral and designed the free-standing bell tower. At his death, only the lower section had been completed. Andrea Pisano continued the construction; it was completed under Francesco Talenti. The coloured cladding of differently coloured marble visually connects the tower with the cathedral and the baptistery. Relief programmes on the lower stories depict, among other things, human activities, the arts and sciences.

The anniversary provided an occasion to commemorate Giotto both as a painter and as an architect. For San Marino, the choice also fits within its regularly issued coins commemorating personalities from the history of Italian art and culture. No further direct connection between Giotto and the Republic is apparent.